We have to bring Pam Grier back every once in a while. This breezy shot currently making its way around the internet certainly ranks among the best promo images ever made of a classic figure. Whoever took this photo captured Grier in a seaside mode we've never seen before, and whoever originally uploaded it deserves thanks, but only partially—Grier deserves most of the credit just for being her.

Above is an Italian poster for the American financed, Philippine shot sexploitation actioner The Big Doll House, which starred Roberta Collins, Brooke Mills, Pat Woodell, Pam Grier, and Judy Brown. This wasn't the first women in prison movie—those had been appearing for decades—but it was the one that got the ’70s prison sexploitation ball rolling in the U.S. It offers a full slate of whippings, waterboardings, overheated isolation, and bizarre snake tortures, orchestrated by the evil wardeness Christiane Schmidtmer. Collins leads the beautiful convicts' eventual escape from bondage and hers is the most memorable character in the ensemble, though all the personalities are interesting. Don't get us wrong—the acting is of course atrocious, and the production values aren't high, but that didn't bother us and it didn't bother American audiences either. They made the movie a hit and the women-in-prison conveyor belt quickly cranked out other Filipino bondage productions like Women in Cages, The Hot Box, The Woman Hunt, The Big Bird Cage, and many others. The Big Doll House wasn't the best of the lot, by any stretch, but hey—being a trailblazer matters. We think it's worth a viewing.

Coffy is not a movie we planned to write about, due to the fact that it's been covered by so many websites. But then we came across this French poster made for its release in Paris today in 1973—where it was called Coffy: la panthère noire de Harlem—and we changed our minds. The movie possibly falls into the category of those everyone has heard about but few have seen, so we gave it a run for the first time in some years. The story is straightforward—a teen girl is in the hospital suffering from the effects of an overdose, and her sister, played by Pam Grier, goes looking for revenge. She kills the dealer who sold heroin to her sister, but soon learns there's another dealer behind that one, and so forth. In a world that's corrupt to the core, revenge is a maze where the center is impossibly difficult to find.

Coffy isn't well acted, but those who go in expecting Oscar worthy performances are setting up false standards. Blaxploitation was about telling stories from a new point of view, one lacking in American cinema. Trying to round out a black cast, as well as find compelling black leads, meant taking chances and bringing novice performers into the fold. The message is what mattered in these movies, and the message was that something was seriously wrong in America. Those who paid attention learned one of the most basic lessons anyone can learn—your reality is just one of many. Other people live entirely different lives governed by different, equally valid truths. Mainstream Americans who understood this concept learned plenty from blaxploitation. Those who denied this most simple of life's facts learned nothing—and are the same people who today look at what happens in America's inner cities with bafflement or scathing contempt.

Coffy was really an envelope pushing film. We'll just highlight one scene to make that point. Pam Grier's title character has sex with her boyfriend then heads toward the bathroom. On the way there, but off-camera, we hear her say, “Oops! Oh, you shouldn't have made me laugh.” What do you supposed happened? Here's a hint—it involves spillage, and not from a glass. It may well have been the first movie ever to hint at post-coital drainage. Later it does another off-camera bit with oral sex when Grier pours wine in her boyfriend's lap and proceeds to clean it up. Coffy may not have been well acted, but it had moments of earthy realism that were almost microscopic in focus. You also get plenty of action and a fierce, single-minded heroine you can root for. Coffy opened in France today in 1973. Check out a rare U.S. promo poster for it here.

Pam Grier was one of Pulp Intl.’s first femmes fatales so it seems only right to bring her back every once in a while. This shot of her appeared on the May 1975 cover of New York magazine and is probably one of the best images of her ever made. The accompanying text called her “a new kind of Hollywood star.” That was true of her and several other women who came up through the blaxploitation ranks, but Grier was really top of the heap—she was the best, the bravest, and by far the most famous. She's had steady success for more than forty years, but we really enjoy those old movies of hers, and this photo captures her at the peak of that period.

Remember the two excellent Italian posters for the 1974 swords-and-sandals/blaxploitation epic The Arena? Usually the American posters for films from this era compare unfavorably to the foreign versions, but in this case the U.S. promo is also very good. And as a bonus Grier actually gets to star on this one. On the Italian versions she was entirely whitewashed from one, and relegated to secondary status on the other. Not only that—on the text of both posters Italian actress Lucretia Love is given top billing, though she’s actually a supporting character in the film. We can only assume the distributors thought Italian audiences wouldn’t flock to cinemas to see a movie headlined by Grier, and dissed her twice over. Well, above we see her where she belongs.

Though Margaret Markov stars on this poster for La rivolta delle gladiatrici, aka The Arena, aka Naked Warriors, while co-star Pam Grier is nowhere to be seen and barely manages to secure a spot on poster two, below, let there be little doubt—Grier is the center of this film about women thrown into a Roman arena to fight for their lives. The women begin as domestic and sex slaves, but when they get into a kitchen brawl the ferocity of the fight gives their owner Timarchus the bright idea to convert them into gladiators. What follows ends with a showdown between Grier and Markov, once rivals, now friends, but pitted against each other in a battle to the death. The two had already starred together in Black Mama White Mama, but this effort is better. Filmed in Rome and Lazio, it has a realistic look, a script that works, and co-leads with a developed chemistry as screen partners. As a bonus you get Rosalba Neri and Lucretia Love in supporting roles. Recommended stuff. La rivolta delle gladiatrici premiered in Italy today in 1974.

The Big Bird Cage finds writer-director Jack Hill at the top of his form as he sticks star Anitra Ford in a Philippine jungle prison where an evil warden uses the female inmates as slave labor to process sugar. Pam Grier and Sid Haig are revolutionaries who want to recruit women for their cause, so Grier infiltrates the prison and primes the women for a big break out. This is one of the most remembered of 70s B-romps, a sleazefest filled with iconic scenes such as Ford being suspended by her hair, and seven-foot model Karen McKevic slathering her body with grease and dashing naked through camp. The classic poster is above, a brilliant production photo appears below, and if you’re looking for actual reviews, well, there are about a thousand online. Wild, weird, and oh so incorrect, The Big Bird Cage premiered in the U.S. this month in 1972.

A little while ago we shared an image of American actress Judy Pace, and that got us thinking about some of her blaxploitation flicks. One we hadn’t seen was Cool Breeze, a reworking of the classic 1950s crime drama The Asphalt Jungle, which was in turn based on W.R. Burnett’s novel. We watched it last night and enjoyed it, though like many movies of the genre it’s the grittiness and other intangibles that make it good, as opposed to the acting and directing, which aren’t great.

But one bonus was the brief appearance of Pam Grier, who you see below in a totally nude still image you won’t find on any other website (at least not yet). We found it interesting that the scene in question did not actually show Grier nude. Instead, her entire torso was blocked by a character in the foreground. But obviously there was another camera and the still was taken from the alternate angle cinemagoers never got to see. You’re welcome internetgoers. Grier was once described by fellow actress Margaret Markov as fearless, basically up for anything, and here’s proof.Moving on to the poster, it was made for the movie’s Italian run as I diamanti sono pericolosi, which means “diamonds are dangerous.” This piece of art is rare not just in the real world, but on the internet, which means that, like the Grier photo, you probably won’t find it on any other website (at least not an unwatermarked version). Cool Breeze premiered in the U.S. in 1972. No info on when it debuted in Italy.

There’s nothing we can write about Pam Grier’s blaxploitation thriller Foxy Brown that hasn't already been written. But our site wouldn’t be complete without an entry on this film, so above are two American promo posters, and below are some production stills. Foxy Brown was made using the same basic blueprint as 1973’s Coffy, and in fact was originally written as a sequel to the earlier film. Why American International ditched the sequel concept and denied itself a franchise is unclear, but the movie was a hit anyway. We love it, but in honesty, it’s clunkily written and badly acted, however we can also sense how visceral and different it must have felt at the time. At the very least, it’s worth seeing for Grier’s groovy opening dance number. Foxy Brown premiered today in 1974.

Here’s a little something different—you're looking at a foot-high statuette of Pam Grier as Foxy Brown. It comes from Mark Alfrey Studios and goes for $70, or thereabouts. He also has a version of Grier as the immortal Coffy, seen below. They’re done in stylized proportions, but amusingly, their extreme shapes are not too far off Grier’s actual mid-20s physique—all praises to genetics. By the way, someone asked us recently why Coffy never had a last name. When you consider Grier has played such characters as Sheba Shayne, Friday Foster and Jackie Brown, Coffy no-last-name would seem to be a grave omission, but she actually does have a last name—it’s Coffin (see what we did there with that “grave” omission thing?). Her character is called Coffy as a nickname, (much better than Coffin, considering she’s a nurse), so what she actually lacks is a first name. It never occurs in the film.

Last time we watched Coffy we made a game of coming up with a first name. Her sister is named LuBelle, so that gave us a general sense of which way to go, but we settled on something ridiculous, owing to the brain-muddling influence of demon alcohol. Next time you watch the movie try some names on for size—it’s kind of fun. Anyway, back to the figures, these things are licensed, so Alfrey got some signed by Grier, and those go for a cool $145. But for the blaxploitation fan who has everything price is no object. And for Grier, statuettes are great, but how about a star on the Walk of Fame? She’s had far greater cultural impact than many of the recipients.

The RMS Queen Mary, three-and-a-half years in the making, launches from Clydebank, Scotland. The steamship enters passenger service in May 1936 and sails the North Atlantic Ocean until 1967. Today she is a museum and tourist attraction anchored in Long Beach, U.S.A.

1983—Nuclear Holocaust Averted

Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov, whose job involves detection of enemy missiles, is warned by Soviet computers that the United States has launched a nuclear missile at Russia. Petrov deviates from procedure, and, instead of informing superiors, decides the detection is a glitch. When the computer warns of four more inbound missiles he decides, under much greater pressure this time, that the detections are also false. Soviet doctrine at the time dictates an immediate and full retaliatory strike, so Petrov's decision to leave his superiors out of the loop very possibly prevents humanity's obliteration. Petrov's actions remain a secret until 1988, but ultimately he is honored at the United Nations.

2002—Mystery Space Object Crashes in Russia

In an occurrence known as the Vitim Event, an object crashes to the Earth in Siberia and explodes with a force estimated at 4 to 5 kilotons by Russian scientists. An expedition to the site finds the landscape leveled and the soil contaminated by high levels of radioactivity. It is thought that the object was a comet nucleus with a diameter of 50 to 100 meters.

1992—Sci Fi Channel Launches

In the U.S., the cable network USA debuts the Sci Fi Channel, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. After a slow start, it built its audience and is now a top ten ranked network for male viewers aged 18–54, and women aged 25–54.

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